Fanuc Robot Safety Concern

alive15 said:

very close to the opening for operators to load, and for the robot to pick up.

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This is the major concern. I've used two light curtains in the same manner; last one has been running 10 years, standards probably have changed.

Operator in zone, remove robot ok to enter permissive. Operator can never pass through light curtain to be within work zone.

Light indicating ok to enter zone to operator.

Light curtains wired to safety relay so if both light curtains tripped, e-stop, requiring safety relay reset. Light curtains auto reset.

The stop time/distance is the biggest thing to be concerned with.

Thoroughly test and document stop times.

In my opinion, the most dangerous activity with a robot is being within cell using the teach pendant. Too many examples of people being crushed.

@rblunt No I haven't installed any light curtains at the moment. Yeah, I won't make it auto-reset. So even for much safer machines, you cannot have the light curtains auto-resetting? I would think on machines with little to no risk of injury, you could get away with it?

I think if there is a robot picking out of a fixture that a robot loads, that is not a little to no risk safety concern.

If the robot always has to rotate on axis 1 to reach the fixture then you could probably just do a base limit switch, there are all kinds of options now and an operator light curtain. So one or the other must be reset at all times otherwise robot estops. Again, I have never made a light curtain where an operator enters and does not need to swipe a reset button BUT I don't have any letters at the end of my name